


克罗地亚失恋博物馆

by huangjinguo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 08:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15020819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huangjinguo/pseuds/huangjinguo
Summary: Yifan might get another chance at a relationship that he thought was lost.





	克罗地亚失恋博物馆

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know this just happened I haven't written in a while, it's bad, forgive me.
> 
> But I went to this exhibition today and it triggered something in me lmao.

***

120 Kuai.

It is a rather ridiculous amount of money given the fact that all you're going to get is to look at personal belongings some heartbroken idiots sent to the curators of this shit.

Yifan feels himself getting annoyed while his friend Tao squeals in excitement, lifts up the admission ticket and takes a picture of it in front of the entrance. The ticket says 美好的爱, but the characters are vanished, leaving them incomplete, to sort of represent the feeling when you've gotten your heart broken.

Happy love.

"Let's go, big boy!" Tao chirps and they flee into the cool hall, because the sun feels like it’s going to burn their heads.

Tao has always been a lover of art and museums. Yifan, on the other hand, not so much. They're very different from each other, but somehow they've been best friends ever since they met at university. Yifan cherishes their friendship, because they can talk about anything, despite their differences.

Tao usually does not ask Yifan to join him on his crawls through places like this, but none of his other friends are free, so he turned for the other. Yifan probably only agreed because he didn't have anything better to do. Tao hadn't told him where he wanted to go, only when they were in front of the venue already, because he knew Yifan wouldn't have come with him otherwise.

Museum of Broken Relationships. A place for people to anonymously drop things reminding them of failed relationships. A place for the broken-hearted to wail about their own self-pity.

There are a billion things on Yifan's mind right now he’d rather do than to look at a collection of things that belonged to people who try to move on from their loved ones. But the bus ride was way too long to turn around right away, and the ticket was too expensive to not even walk through it once. And besides, Tao is really excited, and they haven't seen each other in a bit because of their recently started jobs and busy schedules, so he swallows down his annoyance and follows Tao from one exhibition piece to another.

People have sent in all kinds of things - a simple hair band from a guy who kept one on his wrist in case his girlfriend had forgotten hers. A fortune cookie message telling the girl to 'Read between the lines' and her coming to the conclusion that her boyfriend had cheated on her. A ticket to the Imagine Dragons concert here in Shanghai where he confessed his love, unsuccessfully. A positive pregnancy test, captioned with a short and precise 'Thank you and fuck you.' - Tao takes a picture of almost every piece, stopping to read every single story and feel the agony and pain that the former owners of these personal tokens must have felt. 

Yifan just shuffles through the exhibition and it needs all of his willpower for him to not grunt every five seconds. When they're halfway through, one piece catches Yifan's eye, not because it stands out to all the other things, but because _it looks so familiar_.

For everyone else, it's just a piece of paper that's been ripped out of a notepad. It's been folded several times, hardly keeping together. The owner must have carried it around in their purse, pulling it out, folding it up, looking at it, then folding it together again and stuffing it back until next time.

On the paper, someone has scribbled two animals. The scribbles are so bad, nobody could probably realise what kind of animals, but Yifan immediately recognises them - a dragon and a rabbit.

Yifan recognises them because it was _him_ drawing these. No doubt. He remembers picking up the pen and starting with a few lines - the pen was running low on ink, so he had to scribble some meaningless patterns into the corner of the paper before it would work properly. The tail of the (very ugly, to be honest) dragon is smudged because he's swiped his hand over it before the ink had dried. He had given the scribble to his ex boyfriend Yixing.

He hasn't thought of Yixing in a while but seeing this, his drawing, here, in this setting, knocks him almost out cold. Yifan forgets how to breathe for a second and his surroundings seem to vanish as he looks down to the explanation next to the piece.

 

**Drawing**  
One Year  
Shanghai, China

He always called himself 'Fan Gogh' even though his drawings were hideous. He had no talent at all, and he was very well aware of it. Nevertheless I kept this scribble, because he told me the animals represented us. He was the dragon. I was the rabbit. I used to think it was just him being lame - I loved him for his stupid jokes and puns. I loved everything about him. I still love everything about him.

Now, I think these animals represent us more than anything else. He's the powerful dragon, going far in life, keeping watch of his beloved ones, prospering. I am the rabbit, soft and silent, sometimes scared, quick to run away when things get messy.

I ran. It's my biggest regret. Maybe dragons and rabbits shouldn't be together. But I long for him, so much that I cannot find closure.

 

Yifan feels his heart beating against his ribcage. Yixing.

"Rabbits and dragons? Hahaha!"

Tao has bursted in and takes a picture, not aware of what is actually happening. How could he? Yifan has never told anyone about the drawing, mostly because it was just a stupid scribble - he thought that Yixing had discarded it long ago, when they were still together. But he had kept it. 

"Yeah. Haha," Yifan mutters, rolling his eyes and hoping Tao doesn't pick up on anything.

His friend roams over to the next piece, a green sari, and leaves Yifan standing. He feels his heart ache - Yixing has been the best thing. The _best_. He had met him shortly after coming to Shanghai for his studies in a bar - they had hit it off right away and a week later he already had called him his boyfriend. It was mad love. Yifan was crazy about him, willing to lay the whole world down at Yixing's feet. And Yixing showed him the same devotion. For one year, Yifan was on a high that he couldn't get off, and thought would never end, until Yixing had decided to go back to Changsha to his parents. His mother got sick, and Yifan adored Yixing for sacrificing his future to be with her, so he supported him in this decision. But long distance never works out. Video calls turn to phone calls turn to voice messages turn to short messages turn to days without hearing from each other. And then it's just a simple "I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry. I wish you the best.", and it pulls at your heart strings, so much you feel like you can never recover from that.

It's been two years. Thinking of Yixing has slowly become a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion. He has never deleted him from his Wechat, neither has he blocked him or his moments, probably because there has always been a glimmer of hope that they might get talking again. Without making a conscious decision, Yifan pulls his phone out and takes a picture of the drawing, then opens Wechat and scrolls down his contact list. Yixing's name appears with a bunny emoji next to it. 

It's been two years. When he opens the chatroom, it's empty. Tencent has deleted their conversations long ago, and it's just an empty screen staring back at him, which very much represents his brain at the moment. Yifan isn't sure if he should do this. Yixing has played him dirty, never giving him an explanation or anything of the like. He just called it quits, and ignored Yifan's messages until he's given up. On the other hand, even if he's been badly hurt by him, he knows that he never stopped having feelings for him. When he met new people, he felt guilty, even though there was no need for it. He compared his other shorter encounters with romantic interests with Yixing, constantly, and had been disappointed every time because nobody was ever able to live up to him. In front of his friends, Yifan said he's gotten over him - which was a blatant lie. He never did.

So his thumb presses the small plus next to the text input field and he adds the picture and sends it before he loses the courage to do so again. Then, he stuffs his phone back into his pocket, quickly, because he fears that an answer might come sooner than he's mentally ready for. It takes him a few more breaths until he moves on, one hand in his pocket to feel the vibration should Yixing answer.

When they step out of the exhibition into the sunlight, Tao says:

"That was _so_ interesting! What was your favourite exhibition part?"

Right when Yifan wants to answer, his phone goes off.

"Sorry, I need to check this mate," he says to Tao who just nods and resigns himself to taking a few pictures of the area until he's finished.

_I never thought you would see it. Sending this to the museum was a lame attempt to get over our relationship._

Yifan's hands start shaking as he types an answer.

_Has it worked?_

_No. Not a bit._

A quick look to Tao tells Yifan that his friend is going to be busy taking selfies in front of the exhibition center for quite a while so his fingers fly over his phone, lips pressed together to keep a weird smile creeping on his face - he doesn't know why. Is he happy that Yixing is still suffering? Is he happy that Yixing is not over him, because that would mean he would still stand a chance?

Yixing won't let Yifan answer and types something else.

_I recently got back to Shanghai for work. I would love to see you and talk things out. I know I did you wrong. I'm so sorry._

Yifan's brain reboots for a second, then a billion thoughts run through his mind, which he can't even pinpoint, until he is able to send an answer.

_A talk is overdue. If you don't mind, Wagas at Jing'An Kerry Center tomorrow around one?_

_I'll be there. Thank you._

His phone stays silent afterwards and Tao comes back to demand an answer to his question.

"So? What was your favourite?"

Yifan feels excitement boiling in his veins, and then he says:

"The drawing. With the dragon and the rabbit."

Tao scoffs.

"Really? _That?_ Why did this catch your eye?"

Yifan decides to keep this his secret for now and wait what tomorrow will bring. So he shrugs his shoulders.

"Let's have food."

"Ugh, going to things like that with you really is no fun at all!" Tao whines, but agrees on lunch, because he's hungry too.


End file.
